Senior and graduated Covenant Scholars from cities and towns across North Carolina and beyond account for numerous inspirational stories. Below are just a few, listed alphabetically by North Carolina hometown, then other states.
Note: For related stories, visit First Covenant Scholars set sights on commencement and Carolina Covenant prompts support campus-wide
Senior and graduated Covenant Scholars from cities and towns across North Carolina and beyond account for numerous inspirational stories. Below are just a few, listed alphabetically by North Carolina hometown, then other states.
Burlington
When Hoda Imeni Kashani’s parents were just one year shy of graduating from college in Iran, they were expelled because of their religion, she said. The Islamic revolution had just taken place, and new laws did not allow anyone of the Baha’i faith to attend college.
They weren’t allowed to go to America, either, but Sami Ollah Imeni Kashani and Mahnaz “Sherry” Mirhosseini managed to move their family to Pakistan when Hoda was 9. After two and a half years, they headed for the United States, said Hoda Imeni: “The biggest reason was for education and a better future for the kids.”
Come May 11 in Kenan Stadium, the food services worker and the hairdresser will live vicariously through their oldest child as Hoda graduates with a major in psychology and a minor in chemistry.
“They’re thrilled,” the Carolina Covenant Scholar said of her parents. “It’s like everything that they did finally paid off. I feel that they risked their lives for this day, and I couldn’t be any more appreciative.”
The Hugh Cummings High School graduate gave back to the Covenant program, serving as a peer mentor to four younger Covenant Scholars last year.
Imeni has been admitted to dental school at UNC and applied for a scholarship. She is thankful not to have loans for her undergraduate years to pay back as she begins dental school.
Imeni decided to become a dentist after volunteering with Dr. Steven Slott of Burlington in his portable free dental program, N.C. Missions of Mercy. Slott, whom she said treats mostly Medicaid patients, offers clinics for low-income patients.
“I just loved it,” she said. “It would be wonderful if I could work with the same kind of populations and use my skills to help as many people as I can – and make them smile.”
That experience and her alternative spring break trip last March to the Dominican Republic were undertaken with the University’s undergraduate pre-dental honor society, she said. On the trip, she was one of 15 students providing dental supplies and education to residents in and around Monte Cristi. “Each of us had two big suitcases of toothbrushes and toothpaste, and we passed them out to all the villagers.” Thank goodness for her UNC course in Spanish for health care professionals.
Imeni would like to practice dentistry near Burlington or in a rural area, helping low-income patients as much as possible. “I feel grateful for all the help I had as an undergraduate, and I feel that I want to give back because I’ve been given this chance.”
Imeni can be reached at (919) 619-8910 or imeni@email.unc.edu.
Clarkton
When Covenant Scholar Josh Wilkes was in high school in Clarkton, his parents were separated. His mother, Kathy, now a teacher at Raleigh’s Enloe High School, was an interpreter for a deaf student; her income was low, he said, and he was resigned to taking out loans if he were to get through college.
But after three semesters at East Carolina University, he transferred to Carolina in 2005 and qualified for the Covenant. He made the deans’ list his last three semesters and graduated on time and debt-free last December.
Now a teller at Bank of America in Chapel Hill and a part-time waiter, he is among 38 chosen nationwide for a three-year professional development program with Lincoln Financial Group in Hartford, Conn. He starts in August.
“I graduated at 22 years old from UNC debt-free,” said Wilkes. “Covenant gave me so much.” He gave back by becoming a Covenant peer mentor.
Wilkes said his faculty mentor, psychology professor Karen Gil, Ph.D., contributed mightily to his success. He also took advantage of training offered by University Career Services, through which he interviewed for the Lincoln Financial post.
Wilkes can be reached at (919) 673-2727.
Fuquay-Varina
Michele Clark, a double major in political science and sociology, wants to work for the U.S. State Department. But first, she’ll seek work with a nonprofit group, which graduating debt-free from Carolina will allow her to do.
“With as much help as I’ve gotten through the Carolina Covenant and other programs, I’d like to give back to people who have given me these opportunities,” said Clark, who was raised by a single mother.
“I know that without the Covenant, I wouldn’t have been able to go to UNC and graduate as easily as I have,” said Clark, who also won a scholarship for study abroad in London. She’d have graduated from college somewhere, she believes, “but I would be in a lot of debt.”
Previously, when she and her mother lived in California, Connie Clark worked about 70 hours a week at a supermarket, Clark said. “I hardly ever got to see her.” After Clark graduated from high school, they sought to better their lives. They sold their house and moved to North Carolina.
Here, Connie Clark has a similar job with fewer hours. She, Michele’s grandmother, an aunt, an uncle and a cousin will be in Kenan Stadium on May 11 to cheer Michele on.
Clark can be reached (919) 272-2520 or michelecclark@gmail.com.
King
Whoever says they don’t have time to do everything they want has not met Tabitha Disher.
The Covenant Scholar will graduate with highest honors on May 11, with a double major in English and comparative literature. All four years at Carolina, she has played in the marching and pep bands, respectively, at football and basketball games.
“It was time-consuming, but it was worth it,” said the alto saxophonist. “It was a lot of fun.”
Disher also did volunteer work in Namibia and studied abroad in Berlin. She learned a lot abroad, she said. “I grew as a person.”
That journey started early. “I wanted to be a writer when I was little. I read a lot and wrote a lot from elementary school on.” At West Stokes High School, she helped edit the newspaper, took two advanced placement classes and was drum major for the band.
Disher will graduate debt-free. She used an external scholarship to buy books and, in her junior year, became a resident adviser – in part because that job would pay for her housing. “But I stayed, and I moved up to R.A. mentor this year. I help run programming for my community,” which comprises three residence halls. She supervises 10 resident assistants.
Besides that, she has an internship at UNC Press and is applying for jobs at the Department of State.
Without the Covenant, Disher said, she might have been able to afford community college but would have needed loans to attend Carolina. Randy and Cherie Disher, a painter and a screen printer, respectively, will be proud parents on May 11, watching their daughter become the first in the family to graduate from college.
Disher can be reached at (919) 914-1962 and tdisher@email.unc.edu.
Morehead City
Had it not been for the Covenant, Jeremy Felton said, he probably could not have gone to college. Now, he’s finishing his B.S. in chemistry with the promise of five years’ worth of financial aid from Indiana University for graduate school, starting this fall.
“I’m excited, and ready to do this new thing,” he said. “That’s the exciting part for me, is to be able to continue my studying and to learn as much as I can until they make me stop.” He wants to earn a doctorate in chemistry, complete a post-doctoral fellowship and then find a job teaching chemistry at a university.
Felton has worked in a UNC chemistry research lab for the last three years, developing a way to detect what chemicals in the air contribute to smog. He played alto saxophone in the marching band as a freshman and intramural basketball his freshman through junior years. Last semester he studied abroad in Spain. A James M. Johnston Scholarship from the University funded his study abroad and a summer school course in Chapel Hill to complete a prerequisite.
“The Covenant helped me not have to work so I could focus my attention on school,” he said. “I’m glad for all the opportunities I’ve been able to have while I was here.”
Learning has been the theme in the Felton family, with Jeremy in Chapel Hill; his mom, Brenda, attending community college; his older brother, David, at East Carolina University; and younger brother, Justin, at Jeremy’s alma mater, West Carteret High School in Morehead City. Justin will graduate in June and attend Carolina this fall.
They tried to ensure that all four of them would graduate this spring, but that didn’t work out, Jeremy said: “But we got two out of four. That’s pretty good.”
Felton can be reached at (252) 269-9237 or jfelton@email.unc.edu.
Southport
Melanie Goforth , the third of six children, lost her father when she was 13. Her mother, Annmarie Goforth, held things together by caring for homes on Bald Head Island and with her painting buisness.
Melanie Goforth’s only obstacle in trying to go to college was financial, but that worry evaporated with news of the Carolina Covenant. Adjusting to Carolina was difficult at first, she said. “My roommate is from Charlotte, and she was a lot more prepared than me. I’m from a town of blue-collar working folks.”
But Goforth took advantage of workshops on note-taking, writing and how to study science and math. Folks she met through her work-study job in the economics department helped her as well, she said. A biology major, she’s now in the National Biological Honor Society. She has been accepted into the dental assisting program at Carolina for this fall.
College did more than help Goforth figure out what to do for a living. It broadened her way of looking at the world. “Going to college is not just about getting a job and making money,” she said. “It’s about diversity, it’s an extension of your life, and learning that it’s not all about North Carolina or the United States. It’s about the whole world working together and helping people who need help. It’s about working cooperatively with other cultures and other races. Everyone is human, and everyone deserves equal treatment.”
But she didn’t have to look far for a partner in life. Less than a month after graduating from UNC in Kenan Stadium, Goforth will tie the knot with her hometown boyfriend. He will move to Chapel Hill after their June 7 wedding.
Goforth won’t graduate debt-free. She had to borrow for summer school the last two years, needed to complete her chemistry minor and other requirements. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. She hopes to become a dentist and practice in her hometown.
“A lot of low-income families don’t have dental insurance or health insurance,” she said. “I’d like one Saturday a month to have open clinic and just come in, and I’ll foot the bill.” After the Covenant, she said, “How can you be selfish?”
To request an interview with Goforth, contact LJ Toler in News Services at (919) 962-8589.
Winston-Salem
Covenant Scholar Melvin McDermott III pulled off quite a feat to graduate in just four years, but it didn’t have anything to do with income.
Just after his freshman year, McDermott was hospitalized for a month at Forsyth Medical Center with the mysterious Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which temporarily paralyzed him. Extensive rehabilitation followed. “I had lost all muscle function and had to get that back,” said the senior political science major.
McDermott returned to Chapel Hill on schedule for his sophomore year, in fall 2005, “but I had to retroactively drop the semester, because my grades reflected the (illness), not my actual abilities.”
His sophomore year began again in January 2006. McDermott, determined to finish college on time, took out an education loan to pay for summer school. Luckily, he said, he had come to Carolina with the benefit of seven credit hours from advanced placement courses he took at Reynolds High School. Those also helped him catch up.
The first in his family to go to college, McDermott also has held work-study and other jobs to help pay his college expenses. Currently he’s an intern at McCorkle Policy in Chapel Hill. McDermott has sung all four years in the Harmonyx a cappella group and previously was in the UNC Gospel Choir. Without the Covenant, he said, he’d still have gone to college, but “I would have been working more, stressing more and had less time for extracurricular activities. I would have been trying to keep my loan amounts down. The Covenant made my experience here better socially, educationally and professionally.”
McDermott’s father died seven years ago. But his mother, Sherry, and two brothers will be in the audience in Kenan Stadium on May 11. McDermott has some job offers and is waiting to hear about other applications. He hopes to become a legislative aide in Raleigh or Washington, D.C. He knows of one job he won’t be allowed to accept.
“My Mom is thrilled,” he said. “She is so excited. She said, ‘You better not come out of this University and get a job selling vacuums.’”
McDermott can be reached at (336) 416-7670 or mcdermott.iii@gmail.com.
St. Louis, Mo.
Erica Glenn grew up in a low-income neighborhood where “you don’t see many people who have gone to college, or get much encouragement to go,” she said. “But my mother was a strong motivator for me to do well in school.” Of universities offering her admission, Carolina landed Glenn because of the Covenant.
“My freshman year, we played in St. Louis for the national championship,” said Glenn. “It was more fun to be here. I watched it in my room because I had an assignment due the next day. I worked on it during the time-outs. Then I went to Franklin Street.”
Glenn majored in exercise and sport science and has rotated through internships with different teams – last fall with UNC football, going to every game. “Combining that with studying is definitely a balancing act,” she said. Glenn recently passed her athletic training certification exam; she’ll apply for her license and hopes to work as a trainer in St. Louis this summer.
“Being a Covenant Scholar has given me a priceless (dual meaning, she notes) experience and opened many doors,” Glenn said. “Without this program, I’m not sure I would have been able to attend such a high-caliber university. I am so grateful to have been a Covenant Scholar.”
Glenn gave back by volunteering in a science program for local middle and elementary school pupils. “The spirit of goodwill inherent in the Covenant is not lost on the scholars,” she said.
She has been admitted to two medical schools and awaits news from a third. Her family will be here to watch her graduate in Kenan Stadium on May 11: “Mom told me not to make fun of her for crying.”
Glenn can be reached at (314) 494-3862 or englenn@email.unc.edu.
Virginia Beach, Va.
Caitlin Shaw’s father left her family when she was a toddler. “My Mom remarried two times to not the best people, so we ended up having to get out of situations fast. It was kind of scary at times,” she said.
In addition, “My little brother was sick a lot,” she said. “School was my outlet.”
“Growing up, college was always a dream of mine, and the Carolina Covenant truly has made that dream a reality,” Shaw said. Otherwise, “I don’t know how I would have paid for it.”
Now, she’s completing a biology major with minors in French and chemistry; she studied abroad in France, funded by the Covenant and money she had saved for years. Shaw also secured several private scholarships before coming to Carolina; those allowed her not to have a work-study job as do many Covenant Scholars. Having learned frugality from her mom, Kathleen Shaw, Caitlin bought and resold most of her textbooks on EBay or bought them from friends.
Before seeking admission to medical school next year, she wants to volunteer for an international relief organization setting up a clinic in Cameroon, Africa. Her ability to speak French will help. She just needs a grant to fund her participation.
“I feel very proud to be a Covenant Scholar and hope that my testimony and the prospect of the program will provide hope to people who are in the same circumstances as I was.”
Shaw can be reached at (757) 319-7366, UNCaitlin@gmail.com.
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589